Friday, July 10, 2015

Today in History for July 10, 2015

July 10, 1499 – The Portuguese explorer Nicolau Coelho
returned to Lisbon after discovering the sea route to India as a companion of
Vasco da Gama.

July 10, 1509 – Religious leader and founder of Calvinism,
John Calvin, was born in Noyon, Picardy, France.

July 10, 1625 – French adventurer Jean Herauld Gourville was
born in La Rochefoucauld in southwestern France.

July 10, 1679 - The British crown claimed New Hampshire as a
royal colony.

July 10, 1776 - The statue of King George III was pulled
down in New York City.

July 10, 1777 - Colonel William Barton of the Rhode Island
Patriot militia captured British General Richard Prescott, from his bed in
Portsmouth, Rhode Island, during the early morning hours. Prescott was the only
British general to suffer the ignominy of being captured twice by Patriot
forces during the War for Independence. American forces first captured Prescott
after Montreal fell to the Patriots in 1775.

July 10, 1778 – In support of the American Revolution, Louis
XVI of France declared war on England.

July 10, 1798 - The U.S. Marine Corps was formally
re-established by "An Act for Establishing a Marine Corps" passed by
the U.S. Congress. The act also created the U.S. Marine Band. The Marines were
first commissioned by the Continental Congress on Nov. 10, 1775.

July 10, 1813 – Peter McQueen, head of the Tallasee warriors;
High-Head Jim, with the Autaugas; and Josiah Francis with the Alabamas,
numbering in all 350, went to Pensacola, Fla. for the purpose of war talk.

July 10, 1813 – Alexander Travis was ordained as a minister
by the Cambridge Church in South Carolina.

July 10, 1820 - Alabama’s first governor, William Wyatt
Bibb, died in Elmore County, Ala. at the age of 38 as a result of injuries
received in a riding accident. As specified in the 1819 constitution the
president of the state senate automatically became the new governor. The new
governor was Bibb’s younger brother, Thomas Bibb, who had represented
Limestone County at the Constitutional Convention and in the state senate.
Thomas did not stand for re-election, but later served again in the legislature
and as director of the Huntsville Branch of the Bank of Alabama.

July 10, 1821 – United States troops took possession of its
newly bought territory of Florida from Spain.

July 10, 1823 – William Stevenson was named postmaster at
Burnt Corn Spring, Ala.

July 10, 1850 - Vice President Millard Fillmore of New York
was sworn in as the 13th President of the United States. President Zachary
Taylor had died the day before, five days after falling ill with a severe
intestinal ailment on the Fourth of July.

July 10, 1861 - The Confederate States of America and the
Creek Indians concluded a treaty.

July 10, 1862 - Forty men from the hill country of northwest
Alabama sneaked into Decatur to join the Union army, prompting Gen. Abel Streight
to mount an expedition to the south to recruit more volunteers. With the help
of an impassioned speech from fervent Unionist Christopher Sheats of Winston
County, a center of anti-secessionist sentiment, Streight added another 150
Alabamians to his force.

July 10, 1863 – The Siege of Battery Wagner began as Union
troops under Quincy Gillmore landed on Morris Island near Charleston, S.C. and
prepared for a siege on Battery Wagner, a massive sand fortress on the island.
On July 10, Gillmore’s troops quickly secured most of the island, and the only
barrier left was Battery Wagner, an imposing fortress that guarded Charleston
Harbor’s southern rim. The fort was 30 feet high, nearly 300 feet from north to
south, and over 600 feet from east to west. Inside were 1,600 Confederates, 10
heavy cannons, and a mortar for hitting ships off the coast.

July 10, 1864 – Union General Lovell H. Rousseau of the Union army began
his 12-day raid through Alabama at Decatur. Under orders from Gen.
William T. Sherman, Rousseau's 2,200 cavalrymen raided south more than 300
miles to the West Point and Montgomery Railroad in east Alabama. By July 20 they
had destroyed more than 30 miles of track between Chehaw Station and Opelika,
thereby aiding Sherman's march on Atlanta by cutting a vital supply line to the
city.

July 10, 1871 – French novelist Marcel Proust was born in Auteuil.

July 10, 1875 – British writer Edmund Clerihew Bentley was born in London,
England.

July 10, 1890 – Wyoming was admitted as the 44th U.S. state.

July 10, 1913 – It was on this date in 1913 that the highest
temperature was recorded in the United States, a sizzling 134 °F in Death
Valley, California.

July 10, 1923 - Alabama author Robert Loveman died in Hot
Springs, Ark.

July 10, 1949 - Four members of a family from Alabama competed in the second
"Strictly Stock" race at the Daytona Beach and Road Course. It is the
only time four members of one family took part in a race in NASCAR's top
division. Brothers Bob, Tim, and Fonty Flock were joined on the track by their
sister, Ethel Flock Mobley. In her husband's 1948 Cadillac, Ethel not only
finished ahead of the other women--in 11th place--but to her eternal delight
defeated both Bob and Fonty.

July 10, 1954 – National Baseball Hall of Fame right fielder
and center fielder Andre Dawson was born in Miami, Fla. During his career, he
played for the Montreal Expos, the Chicago Cubs, the Boston Red Sox and the
Florida Marlins. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010.

July 10, 1967 – Army PFC Jimmy Earl Darby of Opp, Ala. was
killed in action in Vietnam.

July 10, 1967 - Bobbie Gentry recorded “Ode to Billie Joe.”

July 10, 1969 - The National League was divided up into two
baseball divisions.

July 10, 1974 – The officers of Greening Masonic Lodge No.
53 were to be installed by District Lecturer Jesse Byrd at 7:30 a.m.

July 10, 1984 - Pat Poole romped to an easy victory in
voting for mayor in Evergreen, Ala. Poole had wide margins in all five council
districts as he piled up 945 votes to easily defeat Mayor Lee Smith and W.B.
Epperson.

July 10, 1984 - Dwight ‘Doc’ Gooden of the New York Mets
became the youngest player to appear in an All-Star Game as a pitcher. He was
19 years, 7 months, and 24 days old.

July 10, 1985 - Coca-Cola resumed selling the old formula of
Coke, it was renamed "Coca-Cola Classic." It was also announced that
they would continue to sell "New" Coke.

July 10, 1997 – In London, scientists reported the findings
of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supported the "out of
Africa theory" of human evolution placing an "African Eve" at
100,000 to 200,000 years ago.